granadilla port ribera dock tender

Granadilla port takes final step to unlock full potential

Compiled with the help of artificial intelligence, based on Spanish-language information. Source below the article.

Final step for Granadilla port

The Port of Granadilla has taken the last major step towards completing its facilities and unlocking the full potential for which it was conceived. More than eight years after its official opening, the Santa Cruz de Tenerife Port Authority has put out to tender the works to finish the Ribera dock, an operation that will deliver more than half a kilometre of berthing line still pending and complete one of the essential pieces of port infrastructure in the south of Tenerife.

The project will expand the operational capabilities of a facility that hit headlines around the world during the emergency stopover of the Hondius cruise ship – which suffered a hantavirus outbreak on board – last May, and whose activity has remained below the expectations that accompanied its construction. Granadilla was designed to attract major industrial and logistics traffic, and finishing the dock will remove one of the main physical limitations still constraining its operation. Alongside the industrial estate in the same area, this infrastructure forms a logistics and energy hub vital to the island’s future.

€49.8 million contract

The new contract comes to market with a value of €49.8 million. Companies will have until 14 October to submit their bids and, once the work is awarded, will have 20 months to complete it. The project involves building 543 metres of quay, providing continuity between the second section of the multipurpose dock and the concession area to the south.

The Port of Granadilla was officially opened on 2 March 2018, meaning this work arrives eight and a half years later. The facility began operating then with the outer breakwater, the secondary breakwater and a first phase of the multipurpose Ribera dock, but with various works still outstanding. Once the new section is finished, the planned berthing line will reach 1,045 metres, substantially increasing the space available to receive vessels and carry out port operations.

Second attempt at tendering

The tender, which has just been published on the national public procurement platform, is in fact the second attempt to contract the works. The first came earlier this year and ended with no company expressing interest. The Council of Ministers had authorised the contract in February at a value of €39.7 million. The project subsequently went out to tender, but the deadline passed in April without any offers and the process was declared deserted.

That setback forced the Port Authority for the province of Tenerife to improve the economic conditions. The central government authorised on 28 July raising the spending limit to almost €54 million for another attempt at contracting. The file now published sets the value at €49.8 million. The €10 million increase compared with the first procedure is intended to attract construction firms this time and avoid further delay, in a construction market subject to strong fluctuations caused mainly by rising raw material and fuel prices. Bids may be submitted until 14 October.

Scale of the engineering works

The scale of the operation explains much of its cost. The 543 metres still pending will be built using eleven reinforced concrete caissons, each 48 metres long, founded at a depth of 18 metres. Submerged concrete closures will also be constructed at both ends, and the contract includes the preparation and paving of the new surface. Part of the investment may receive European funding: the contractual documentation establishes that 32.8% of the project is eligible for co-financing from European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) monies.

Long history of phased development

The history of the Ribera dock runs almost in parallel with that of the port itself. When Granadilla was opened in March 2018, the first phase available measured 132 metres in length. That same year, work continued to add a second section of 165 metres, received in December, which raised the available line to 298 metres. Further work followed: in 2019, the backfill corresponding to the second section was completed; subsequently came the surface water drainage channel, earthworks to develop roads and basic networks, and new projects for defences and backfilling of esplanades. In July 2025, provisional backfilling works also began in the Ribera area.

In short, the port opened in 2018 while a significant part of its development was still being carried out in phases. Granadilla had been born as one of the Canary Islands’ biggest port ventures. The main breakwater project was approved in 2005, awarded in 2007, and construction effectively began in 2010. When it was inaugurated eight years later, the overall planned investment stood at around €362 million. Its purpose is to complement the Port of Santa Cruz and offer space for traffic and activities that are difficult to accommodate at the capital’s facilities.

Strategic importance for the island

Activity, however, has grown more slowly than the expectations placed on the facility. That is why completing the Ribera dock matters beyond simply adding another 543 metres of berthing. Having all the planned infrastructure in place broadens the possibilities of competing for new traffic and making the most of Granadilla’s surface area and draught conditions.

The installation of energy and logistics plants at the Port and the Granadilla Industrial Estate, which together already form an industrial hub, is a strategic commitment by the Cabildo of Tenerife for the island’s future economic development. And all the major projects planned depend to some extent on the dock being finished.

Cabildo steps in to unlock land

Given the importance of the area and the lack of progress in exploiting it to its full extent, the Cabildo’s Island Directorate for Strategic Projects (DIPE) has decided to act. The main objective is to unblock two large pockets of land, totalling more than 1.3 million square metres, to host a major energy centre and a logistics hub.

Strategic Projects has already achieved the first major advance in one of these pockets. The Cabildo’s full council approved the Island Interest Project (PII) for the Disa plot on 31 July. This is the first PII approved in the Canary Islands that combines in a single file the planning, urban management and execution project for the development – a “three in one” that finally allows the 275,000 square metres to be activated. Energy infrastructure is planned that will enable the transition towards a more sustainable island model.

There is another even larger sector in the estate: the so-called SP1-01 sector, a giant of 1.1 million square metres. It already has an Island Interest Project declaration and is in the midst of the approval process to house energy facilities, primary industrial warehouses, workshops and logistics storage.

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